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CfP: Spirituality, Healthcare And Social Movements In East Asia: A Transnational Perspective

9 July 2021

We invite papers on different disciplinary and methodological perspectives which speak in some way to the conference theme. Papers can be focused on any particular region of the globe, beyond the constraints of national borders. Proposal deadline: 1 September 2021.

black and white photo of patient undergoing spiritual healing

Conference website: https://eanase.com/1st-eanase-conference/

The East Asian cultural sphere has figured prominently in recent collections of research on new religious movements (e.g. Pokorny and Winter 2018Clart, Ownby and Wang 2020), Theosophy (e.g. Rudbog and Sand 2020Krämer and Strube 2020) and global therapeutic cultures (e.g. Nehring et al. 2020Harrington 2008), while it continues to attract the attention of scholars working on civil society (e.g. Read and Pekkanen 2009) and self-help movements (e.g. Cliff et al. 2017Palmer 2007).

But, although we are often aware of the complex entanglements between these seemingly separate areas of interest, we seldom have the opportunity to discuss such entanglements in and beyond East Asia.

At the same time, in the last twenty years, significant scholarship has been published in East Asia on this topic (recent books include Yoshinaga et al. 2019Ichiyanagi 2020Imura and Hamano 2021 in Japan, Zheng 2018Zhang 2020 in China and Cheon Myeong-soo 2009Park Seung-gil et al. 2019 in South Korea). 

This conference aims to offer such a chance by inviting academic contributions to reflect on the intertwined relationship between spirituality, healthcare and social movements in East Asia from a trans-national/local/cultural perspective. As a time of unprecedented changes and accelerated global interactions, our focus lies on the period between the nineteenth to the twentieth-first centuries. 

We invite papers on different disciplinary and methodological perspectives which speak in some way to the conference theme. 

While papers can be focused on any particular region of the globe, it is important to think beyond the constraints of national borders. Papers must thus demonstrate trans-national/local/cultural connections within or beyond the East Asian cultural sphere (broadly defined; we imagine, for example, that some papers may consider Southeast Asian locales too). 

Paper proposals must include a short author bio (up to 50 words), a paper title and an abstract of no more than 300 words and 3-5 keywords about the proposed presentation. Paper presentations should have a length of up to 25 minutes.

We are looking for papers dealing with original and previously unpublished (in English) material. Selected abstracts will be eventually invited to submit extended versions of the papers for a special issue in an international, peer-reviewed journal.

Please send your paper proposal to eanase.conf.2021@gmail.com by 1 September 2021.